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A Bob Dylan acetate from his personal collection, with an unpublished lyric fragment handwritten by Dylan on the sleeve.

This 12″ one-sided acetate features an alternate sequence of Side One of his 1970 album Self Portrait; it was previously owned by Dylan and used during the making of that album. On the sleeve Dylan has handwritten three lines of unpublished lyrics: The sky turns yellow, birds fly away/The earth’s so mellow, what more is there to say/Lucky’s on the hill but I’m still on that road.

The acetate and Dylan’s handwriting have been authenticated by Recordmecca owner Jeff Gold, a recognized Dylan expert who appraised The Bob Dylan Archive for Dylan’s management. Dylan’s archive included thousands of pages of his handwriting, and Gold’s expertise in Dylan handwriting is unparalleled.

This acetate was part of a collection of Dylan acetates discovered in 2014 in a five story brownstone at 124 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village. From approximately 1969 through 1972, Dylan rented the ground floor of the building for use as a studio (at the time, he lived two blocks away at 94 McDougal St.) When the owner of the building died in January 2014, her executor found the acetates in two boxes labeled “Old Records,” in a a loft closet above the bedroom. The discovery of these acetates by Jeff Gold received extensive media coverage in publications including The New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Rolling Stone, and Billboard.

The Houston St. Studios acetates originally belonged to Bob Dylan, who either discarded them or left them when he moved out of the building in the early 1970’s. For more than 40 years, they were carefully stored by the building’s owner, and only discovered by chance by before the building was put up for sale earlier this year. This acetate is in EX+ condition, with a small imperfection in the last song that makes a few clicks but plays through.

The sleeve has a small archivally repaired tear that slightly affects two letters in Dylan’s lyric, and is missing a small piece of the paper on the back side (both visible in the photos here). The acetate and sleeve would frame beautifully.

Included is Jeff Gold’s letter of authenticity with Recordmecca’s lifetime guarantee, and a copy of a letter of authenticity from the estate’s executor detailing how he discovered the acetates. An extraordinary Dylan artifact formerly owned by Dylan himself.

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